Education in a polycrisis
The story of Pakistan’s education is no longer about what is broken, it is about what is collapsing. It is a tale of two crises entwined: the children who never…
Karachi’s carnival of ideas
Karachi’s cultural calendar has grown crowded, but even in this city’s clutter of exhibitions, seminars and corporate-branded conferences, the Adab Festival continues to carry an oddly irresistible charge. Not because…
Coming down from the mountain
The Kurram Agency of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is in the news primarily on account of a spike in the TTP’s wanton attacks against law enforcement cadres. In this atmosphere of sadness,…
Here is our Shaheen
In the infinite canvas of the sky, where winds whisper of freedom and destiny, there soars a force that embodies the very dream of Allama Muhammad Iqbal: the Pakistan Air…
A pact between kindred spirits
INDIA’S pact last week for upgraded ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers has been seen mostly as an act of befriending the enemy of the enemy, an implied reference to the…
A poet’s odyssey
SHORTLY after the British poet laureate Ted Hughes died in 1998, it was rumoured that the shortlist for a successor included Tony Harrison. Unlikely as that might have been, given…
Divine encounters
VISITING sacred places, persons and objects may be regarded as encounters of the human and divine. These encounters evoke in the visitors’ hearts a sublime, transcendent and holy feeling. When…
A pact between kindred spirits
INDIA’S pact last week for upgraded ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers has been seen mostly as an act of befriending the enemy of the enemy, an implied reference to the…
Art of survival
PAK-AFGHAN tensions are simmering. Talks in Istanbul this weekend focused on improved alignment and coordination for counterterrorism. Also hanging in the balance is the fate of over two million Afghans…
How to fund humanity
A pioneering electronic eye implant has created a ray of hope for millions of people who lose their vision because of a condition known as geographic atrophy (GA), which is…
